Monday, July 23, 2007

Onward, Christian Soldiers!

Christianity and Islam are in the news. A Christian in Canada has been hauled up before another Human Rights Tribunal for speaking. Meanwhile, Islam is in the news because of a recent honour killing in Britain, in which a young woman family member was brutally tortured and killed.

Many in cyberspace insist on equating Islam and Christianity. Usually this amounts to discounting Muslim attrocities while pointing to the rare infraction by someone calling himself a Christian, such as Timothy McVeigh.

In fact, both Muslims and Christians believe in taking up the sword in the defence of their faith.

However, the Christian's sword is the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. Muslim's use a sword of a different sort, as the various pictures of beheadings floating around cyberspace attest.

And that, in a nutshell, is the essential difference between the mindset of Islam and Christianity. We understand our battle as being spritual, albeit carried out here on earth. They view their battle as human conquest, by the sword if necessary. When the Roman Catholic Church wandered into conquest by force, it clearly deviated from the teachings of Christ and the apostles. When Islam embarks on conquest by force, it is fulfilling the teachings of Mohammed and the Koran. That's the essential difference.

Of these two swords, Human Rights Tribunals and goodie-goodies in Canada view the Christian's sword as a far greater threat.